Issue - meetings

Draft Horley Business Park Supplementary Planning Document for Consultation

Meeting: 18/11/2021 - Executive (Item 40)

40 Draft Horley Business Park Supplementary Planning Document for Consultation

Executive Member for Planning Policy and Place Delivery.

Supporting documents:

Decision:

RESOLVED to DEFER approval for the SPD for public consultation.

Minutes:

The Executive Member for Planning Policy and Place Delivery, Councillor Biggs, introduced the report by explaining that the Executive was asked to approve the draft Horley Business Park Development Brief Supplementary Planning Document (SPD) for consultation. Following consultation, the draft SPD would be updated, and the responses received summarised in the final Consultation Statement. The Executive would be asked to adopt the final SPD following this process.

 

Councillors Biggs explained that the Development Management Plan (DMP), adopted in September 2019, allocated this site for development with complementary uses to serve the business park, and a large new public open space of at least 5 hectares. The DMP required the Borough Council to have prepared an SPD to assist with the proper planning and on-going functioning of the site. Once adopted, the site promoter would use the SPD to inform its masterplan which it must prepare in consultation with the Council as local planning authority. That masterplan must be submitted alongside the outline planning application which needs to align with the masterplan. The SPD would also help other interested organisations and consultees to have a comprehensive appreciation of the issues.

 

The draftSPD:

·       provided guidance, to assist the planning, delivery, and function of the Horley Strategic Business Park.

·       had been informed by desktop analysis of the site, its surrounding context, and relevant issues, as well as by correspondence and a series of workshops with representatives of interested organisations.

·       had also been informed by two key consultants studies commissioned by the Planning Policy team and completed this year and was also discussed at a meeting of DMAG and been updated to reflect the points raised.

·       addressed issues as summarised in the initial Consultation Statement.

 

In response to questions from a Visiting Member it was confirmed:

·       That the wording in paragraph 1.21 of the draft SPD would be amended prior to consultation to reflect the need for all relevant elements of the Climate Change and Sustainable Construction SPD to be complied with.

·       That the draft SPD would set ambitious targets for sustainable travel, with specifics dependent on schemes brought forward in the future.

·       That a Tree Protection Order (TPO) had been issued to protect the trees around the boundary of the site following felling of woodland in 2020.

·       That the draft SPD needed to be clear around the need for replacement tree planting in response to the woodland removed before the TPO had been issued.

 

Following discussion, the Executive RESOLVED to DEFER approval for the SPD for public consultation to allow further consideration as to how the SPD would relate to existing and future development on the site.